My assertion is that continuing education credits, or advanced degrees are far from a guarantee of improving a teacher's practice. Continuing education suffers

My assertion is that continuing education credits, or advanced degrees are far from a guarantee of improving a teacher's practice. Continuing education suffers from "box checking." There are a number of reasons for this. It is in no way a knock on teachers. They are caught up in a bad system and are responding to systemic incentives. If we apply an always/sometimes/never framework to my assertion, we can find examples where teachers advanced their practice via continuing education. So the teachers you know certainly could have advanced degrees, some even very helpful in improving their practice. My experience in K-12 as well as studying the history of education reform in America since Sputnik was launched inform this assertion. It has been a recurring theme for 60 years.